Huzzah! I have a job!

So some sudden and v. exciting news -- I just accepted a position with the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation as an Assistant
Travelling Interpretive Supervisor set to start in early January. I'm thrilled to have a job in the field that I was looking for and it
should be really fun. I'll be working at the Foundation's Jamestown Settlement and occasionally travelling to various parts of
Virginia and the East Coast, especially to promote the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown (founded 1607). I'll be doing costumed interpretation, including some non-traditional roles for females like helping to sail the ships (and climb the rigging!), etc. I'm going to try to be down there for an orientation beginning on the 8th of January, so it'll be a quick move. It'll be a frantic couple of weeks on top of the holidays, but I'm still pretty excited!

Jamestown Settlement

The Long Drive for a Job

About a week ago, I recieved an extremely exciting phone call from the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation inviting me down to Virginia for a job interview. I had applied about a month earlier for an interpretive position that seemed exciting, especially with the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown coming up in 2007. I quickly accepted the invitation and made arrangments to head to the Williamsburg/Jamestown area that coming Wednesday for a Thursday interview, only to drive back to Lansing the following day. Trace agreed to come with me to help share the driving and keep me company on the over 12-hour drive.

After working and such in the days leading up to the trip, I gathered all of my necessary resources, purchased a suit (at a fabulous discount, thanks to Ann Taylor...), and put together a basic portfolio. My family was really excited and helped me to get ready.

Come Wednesday, I left before 6:30am to pick up Trace and make our way out of Michigan, through Ohio and Pennsylvania, and into Maryland. We decided to stop at Antietam National Battlefield (Trace's first battlefield, and one of his first National Historic Sites) to break up the driving a bit. Then, it was back on the road, sitting in traffic for a while outside DC, and arriving at a very foggy Williamsburg after 10pm. (photos: Driving through the mountains in Maryland; cannon at Antietam; frolicking deer... one of the herd we saw leaping over the fence; the battlefield; and the most hilarious and disgusting collection of those stupid Christmas inflatables (there were about 30 in their yard!).)







The next morning, we were out exploring Colonial Williamsburg before my interview. I'd never been before and was very excited to see all of the historical-esque sites and people. We didn't buy a ticket (due to our limited time available) and wandered through the shops and streets, stopping to hear Patrick Henry discuss personal freedom and a slave talk about some of the codes in old slave songs. Around noon, we returned to the hotel so that I could get ready for my 1:30 interview at the Jamestown Settlement. (photos: Getting ready to "walk back in time" (cheesey, I know, but also exciting) at what we started to call "Walt History World" -- don't get me wrong, we still liked it!; Trace actually excited to be in the stocks because there weren't any at Michilimackinac; Christmas decorations; a street full of petticoats and powdered wigs; and Patrick Henry discussing comparing colonial embargoes and the PATRIOT Act.)







The drive down the Colonial Parkway towards Jamestown was quiet and swampy, but the visitor center for the Jamestown Settlement was enormous. I met the interviewing comittee and was escorted to a behind-the-scenes office for an interview that lasted for about an hour. I was very impressed by the site, the friendliness of the staff, and the flexible and exciting possibilities of the position. Aftewards, I found Trace and we explored the site, a living history reconstruction of the fort and ships of the Virginia Company's settlement and a Powhatan village. We chatted with interpreters and checked out the roving chickens. (photos: Me at the Jamestown Settlement after my interview; roving chickens; the gardens with the ships on the James River in the background; interpreter on "The Godspeed"; and more veiws of the ship... the position I applied for would require becoming certified to sail the ship and climb the rigging!)







After the interview and all, I phoned in some updates, changed, and we went to dinner before heading back into downtown Williamsburg for shopping, a ghoast tour, and a trip to one of the "historical" taverns. Chipper Chad, our tour leader that evening, was quite hilarious and we heard some "Myths, Legends, and Mysteries" from some first-person interpreters. Soon enough it was back to the hotel before leaving early on Friday for the long drive home. (photos: Swampy drive along the Colonial Parkway; hmmm... this kind of seems familiar...; ghost tour; and me and Chipper Chad.)






After leaving Williamsburg, we stopped at an extremely friendly Waffle House outside of Richmond before stopping at Washington, DC for a couple of quick monument visits. Then, it was back on the road, stopping only to get gas and food. All in all, I pulled into the driveway at about 10:30, completely exhausted. I'll update with details when I know them, as I'm supposed to know within the week about the position. (photos: Me and FDR; Jefferson Memorial; December in DC; and the reunion of best friends TJ (blurry statue in background) and John Adams (my thumb ring -- dorky, I know, but I found it hilarious).)

Beth in a Dress and Thanksgiving

Just before Thanksgiving, Beth "Lavender" Briggs returned to the wonderful state of Michigan to visit her family... and, of course, Jenny and myself. For one whole day, we frolicked around the Ann Arbor/Detroit area, visited really large home furnishing stores, and helped Beth try on oodles of wedding dresses. Little did I realize how much fun critiquing the minutia of weddings could actually be (especially the really hideous minutia)... Anyway, it was wonderful to see Beth (and Jenny) and to hang out and be a bit ridiculous for a day. (photos: Beth and Jenny outside The Great Indoors and by a giant slab of formica; with the shopping cart escalator; doing some wedding research while Beth gets dressed; Beth in a dress; and Jenny really excited about old and/or cheesey books from my grandmother's rejects.)







The days leading up to Thanksgiving were spent mostly working at my jobs and getting used to each of them before the big after Thanksgiving shopping days. Leslie was home for that whole week, which made the house full (for more than just a day) for the first time in almost two years. Wow! Thanksgiving was great, spent watching the morning parades, cooking, and more cooking. Dinner itself was at my grandparents' house with some of my extended family. We ate, drank (mulled cider.... mmm...), and played lots of euchre. Indeed, quite a bit better than my miserable Thanksgiving a year ago. The next day it was back to working the jobs... (photos: Mom, Gma, and Chach as the after dinner kitchen crew; Josh and Uncle Mike relaxing after all the eating; Aunt Margaret digesting her dinner; Dad, Joe, Ron, and Leslie scoffing at a post-dinner nap and opting instead for a trash-talking euchre game; Gma with her euchre "Game Face"; Gpa the turkey man; and the family chatting and such after dinner.)

The Capitol

Another really cool website as discovered while watching the super fascinating C-SPAN (seeming like an oxymoron, I know...) series about the history, art, and culture of the U.S. Capitol building and Senate and House Chambers. Plus, linked on the left of the page are some interesting sites as well -- including one on the Presidents.

The Capitol

Top 100 List

This is a list found by my grandfather about the Top 100 Most Influential people in American History. Enjoy! It's at least pretty intruiging...

Top 100

Mom at 50 and Bumming Around Lansing and A2

So, being unemployed, I had some time on my hands. And in an effort to save money, I have been hanging out A LOT with my family. Involved in being one of those college graduates mooching off their parents, daily activities were reduced to mocking/"training" the dogs, applying for jobs, going to the occasional movie, daily sudoku puzzles, applying for jobs, phone conversations with neglected friends, running errands, applying for jobs, photographing siblings doing their more exciting activities, and - yes - applying for jobs. More of the highlights have also been my mom's 50th birthday lunch and her three birthday dinners, enjoying fall again (after already having one on the Island), a trip or two to Ann Arbor to chill with Jenny "Marquis" Whitener and discuss potential intercepts with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and at last getting a couple of holiday retail jobs (great discounts! ok pay...). Anyway, since it hasn't been too terribly exciting, here are some photos to showcase the excitement.

(photos: Mom and The Professor at Grand Woods Park; me and Max on the banks of the Grand River; Joe and his friend Randy as Mario and Luigi on Halloween; Josh and Dad at Mom's second (and fanciest) birthday dinner at The English Inn; Mom admiring her birthday necklace; and the family and grandparents after dinner.)







(photos: Jenny really excited about her chalkings; what she really does in her apartment... a bit "Rear Window," really; Mom really excited for birthday dinner #3; a proud mother for Joe's roll in his high school play (his photo is worth noting in the program... left page, middle of second row); Joe the knight with his big brother; and signing autographs for his adoring fan(s).)

Halloween!!!!

After returning from Ann Arbor Friday morning, I had a few hours at home before heading North to continue my weekend in Cheboygan and on the Island. After arriving and giving Katie her ordered Archer Farms items from Target, we went for a delicious dinner at Mulligan's, watched the Tigers game a bit, and walked a bit around town before returning to Katie's house. There we had a strangely scrumptious desert of pomegranates while playing Life (the card game, of course) and watching "Batman: The Movie," the Adam West/Burt Ward version known for its incredible dialogue and undeniable logic.

The next morning, we caught the boat to the Island and checked-in with the proprietor of our lodging, Mr. Lee May, at his fudge shop that was 23-degrees warmer than the cold and windy outside. We spent the afternoon wandering around the sales and not buying much of anything. However, we did take a break for lunch at the Grand courtesy of Mr. Bob Tagatz. Unfortunately/fortunately for us, it was the Somewhere in Time weekend at the Grand, which meant a bunch of women (and a few men/husbands dragged along) forced to dress in ridiculous and inaccurate costumes that were obsessed enough with the horrible movie and could recite such innane bits of trivia like "What was the name of one of the plays whose playbill hung in such-and-such's office?" or "How tall was the actor who played so-and-so?". However, our moods remained high and rating the Somewhere in Time-ers just added to the growing list of reasons we were enjoying the weekend. (photos: Mmmm... pomegranates; Katie in the dining room of the Grand eating plate #1 at lunch; and some of the Somewhere in Time crowd at their big trivia contest.)





After lunch, we headed back to town for the final bits of shopping and to pick up our costumes at the Beaumont. We had hoped to get some large pretzels at Doud's, only to find most of the shelves bare since it had recently been sold to an unknown party. After returning to the Dreamcatcher (our place of lodging), we watched the end of "Batman" and the beginning of "The Towering Inferno," relaxed a bit, and started stringing pretzels for our costumes. Lee (dressed as Jack Skellington from "The Nightmare Before Christmas") picked us (dressed again as Bavarian pretzel wenches) up and we went to the Gatehouse for a dinner and the start of our evening. (photos: Our place of lodging, the Dreamcatcher (thanks again, Lee!); Katie after she discovered that Doud's had been mysteriously sold; Lee at dinner, eating buffalo wings in his sister's white gloves; Katie and me with the Lincolns, both extremely excited; and we got even more excited when seven more arrived, totalling TEN Abe Lincolns!!!)







Everyone's costumes were fantastic and the night was a lot of fun. We spent some time at the Pink Pony listening to Myk Rise and at Horn's, but spent most of the time at the Gatehouse enjoying Hot Carl (though Hot Carl himself was too inebriated to actually perform). The following morning, after a breakfast at Sinclair's, we left the Island and headed back to Cheboygan and then myself heading back downstate. It was one of the more energized and fun Halloweens that I'd had for quite some time. (photos: Peggy the flapper; Carolyn aka Snow White; and Heather the disco rocker; Val and Lee dancing; Katie and Peggy dancing (note the awesome blue lightstick bracelet on Katie); one of the many pretzel casualties of the night; and the Pee Wee guy doing the "Tequila" dance (no, Jenny, he didn't bring giant underpants).)





(photos: Bertram and the pretzel wenches; Lee acting a bit shaksepearian; Peggy, Carolyn, and me; Peggy and Lee with some fabulous jazz hands; and the dance floor at Horn's (note the Lincoln in the background).)






***For additional photos, including more really cool costumes, visit Katie and Lee's blogs (linked on the right side of the page)***